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diff --git a/fetchmail-FAQ.html b/fetchmail-FAQ.html index 8565fc14..e10d7715 100644 --- a/fetchmail-FAQ.html +++ b/fetchmail-FAQ.html @@ -1,6 +1,17 @@ <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<!-- + +########################################################################## +WARNING! + +Be sure that <h1> tags are in the leftmost column so that the awk +postprocessor can skip the Contents section that HTMLDOC will insert +in a much better way. +########################################################################## + +--> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <title>The Fetchmail FAQ</title> @@ -35,7 +46,9 @@ this FAQ list, file it to one of the trackers at <a project site</a> or post to one of the fetchmail mailing lists (see below).</p> -<h1>General questions:</h1> +<h1>Contents</h1> + +<h2>General problems</h2> <a href="#G1">G1. What is fetchmail and why should I bother?</a><br/> <a href="#G2">G2. Where do I find the latest FAQ and fetchmail sources?</a><br/> @@ -55,21 +68,21 @@ below).</p> <a href="#G16">G16. How will fetchmail perform under heavy loads?</a><br/> -<h1>Build-time problems:</h1> +<h2>Build-time problems</h2> -<a href="#B1">B1. Make coughs and dies when building on FreeBSD.</a><br/> +<a href="#B1"><strike>B1. Make coughs and dies when building on FreeBSD.</strike></a><br/> <a href="#B2">B2. Lex bombs out while building the fetchmail lexer.</a><br/> <a href="#B3">B3. I get link failures when I try to build fetchmail.</a><br/> <a href="#B4">B4. I get build failures in the intl directory.</a><br/> -<h1>Fetchmail configuration file grammar questions:</h1> +<h2>Fetchmail configuration file grammar questions</h2> <a href="#F1">F1. Why does my old .fetchmailrc no longer work?</a><br/> <a href="#F2">F2. The .fetchmailrc parser won't accept my all-numeric user name.</a><br/> <a href="#F3">F3. The .fetchmailrc parser won't accept my host or username beginning with 'no'.</a><br/> <a href="#F4">F4. I'm getting a 'parse error' message I don't understand.</a><br/> -<h1>Configuration questions:</h1> +<h2>Configuration questions</h2> <a href="#C1">C1. Why do I need a .fetchmailrc when running as root on my own machine?</a><br/> @@ -87,7 +100,7 @@ from an init script.</a><br/> host?.</a><br/> -<h1>How to make fetchmail play nice with various MTAs:</h1> +<h2>How to make fetchmail play nice with various MTAs</h2> <a href="#T1">T1. How can I use fetchmail with sendmail?</a><br/> <a href="#T2">T2. How can I use fetchmail with qmail?</a><br/> @@ -98,7 +111,7 @@ host?.</a><br/> <a href="#T7">T7. How can I use fetchmail with Courier IMAP?</a><br/> <a href="#T8">T8. How can I use fetchmail with vbmailshield?</a><br/> -<h1>How to make fetchmail work with various servers:</h1> +<h2>How to make fetchmail work with various servers</h2> <a href="#S1">S1. How can I use fetchmail with qpopper?</a><br/> <a href="#S2">S2. How can I use fetchmail with Microsoft Exchange?</a><br/> @@ -108,7 +121,7 @@ host?.</a><br/> <a href="#S6">S6. How can I use fetchmail with MailMax?</a><br/> <a href="#S7">S7. How can I use fetchmail with FTGate?</a><br/> -<h1>How to fetchmail work with specific ISPs:</h1> +<h2>How to fetchmail work with specific ISPs</h2> <a href="#I1">I1. How can I use fetchmail with Compuserve RPA?</a><br/> <a href="#I2">I2. How can I use fetchmail with Demon Internet's SDPS?</a><br/> @@ -119,8 +132,8 @@ host?.</a><br/> <a href="#I7">I7. How can I use fetchmail with SpryNet?</a><br/> <a href="#I8">I8. How can I use fetchmail with comcast.net?</a><br/> -<h1>How to set up well-known security and authentication -methods:</h1> +<h2>How to set up well-known security and authentication +methods</h2> <a href="#K1">K1. How can I use fetchmail with SOCKS?</a><br/> <a href="#K2">K2. How can I use fetchmail with IPv6 and IPsec?</a><br/> @@ -130,7 +143,7 @@ methods:</h1> <a href="#K6">K6. How can I tell fetchmail not to try TLS if the server advertises it?</a><br/> -<h1>Runtime fatal errors:</h1> +<h2>Runtime fatal errors</h2> <a href="#R1">R1. Fetchmail isn't working, and -v shows 'SMTP connect failed' messages.</a><br/> @@ -152,7 +165,8 @@ messages but before deleting them</a><br/> <a href="#R11">R11. My server is hanging or emitting errors on CAPA.</a><br/> <a href="#R12">R12. Fetchmail isn't working and reports getaddrinfo errors.</a> -<h1>Hangs and lockups:</h1> + +<h2>Hangs and lockups</h2> <a href="#H1">H1. Fetchmail hangs when used with pppd.</a><br/> <a href="#H2">H2. Fetchmail hangs during the MAIL FROM @@ -160,7 +174,7 @@ exchange.</a><br/> <a href="#H3">H3. Fetchmail hangs while fetching mail.</a><br/> -<h1>Disappearing mail:</h1> +<h2>Disappearing mail</h2> <a href="#D1">D1. I think I've set up fetchmail correctly, but I'm not getting any mail.</a><br/> @@ -170,7 +184,7 @@ connection.</a><br/> fetchmail seems to have been vanished.</a><br/> -<h1>Multidrop-mode problems:</h1> +<h2>Multidrop-mode problems</h2> <a href="#M1">M1. I've declared local names, but all my multidrop mail is going to root anyway.</a><br/> @@ -190,7 +204,7 @@ from my Received headers as it should.</a><br/> messages.</a><br/> -<h1>Mangled mail:</h1> +<h2>Mangled mail</h2> <a href="#X1">X1. Spurious blank lines are appearing in the headers of fetched mail.</a><br/> @@ -209,7 +223,7 @@ fetchmail.</a><br/> <a href="#X8">X8. A spurious ) is being appended to my messages.</a><br/> -<h1>Other problems:</h1> +<h2>Other problems</h2> <a href="#O1">O1. The --logfile option doesn't work if the logfile doesn't exist.</a><br/> @@ -240,9 +254,9 @@ immediately" in my logs.</a><br/> <a href="#O15">O15. Fetchmail always retains the first message in the mailbox.</a><br/> -<h1>Answers:</h1> <hr/> +<h1>General problems</h1> <h2><a id="G1" name="G1">G1. What is fetchmail and why should I bother?</a></h2> @@ -274,7 +288,6 @@ License</a>.</p> <p>If you found this FAQ in the distribution, see the README for fetchmail's full feature list.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="G2" name="G2">G2. Where do I find the latest FAQ and fetchmail sources?</a></h2> @@ -289,11 +302,15 @@ POP mail tools directory on Sunsite</a>.</p> distribution. Because it freezes at distribution release time, it may not be completely current.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="G3" name="G3">G3. I think I've found a bug. Will you fix it?</a></h2> -<p>Yes I will, provided you include enough diagnostic information +<p>The first thing you should to is to upgrade to the newest version of +fetchmail, and then see if the problem reproduces. So you'll probably +save us both time if you upgrade and test with <a href="#G2">the latest + version</a> <em>before</em> sending in a bug report.</p> + +<p>I will fix bugs, provided you include enough diagnostic information for me to go on. Send bugs to <a href="mailto:fetchmail-users@lists.berlios.de">fetchmail-users</a>. When reporting bugs, please include the following:</p> @@ -320,12 +337,6 @@ command-line options you used.</li> any suspicion that the bug was triggered by a particular message, please include a copy of the message that triggered the bug.</p> -<p>Often, the first thing I will do when you report a bug is tell -you to upgrade to the newest version of fetchmail, and then see if -the problem reproduces. So you'll probably save us both time if you -upgrade and test with the latest version <em>before</em> sending in -a bug report.</p> - <p>If your bug is something that used to work but stopped working when you upgraded, then you can help pin the bug down by trying <a href="http://download.berlios.de/fetchmail/">intermediate versions @@ -400,15 +411,11 @@ tested that the easy bugs have long since been found). So if you want your bug fixed rapidly, it is not just sufficient but nearly <em>necessary</em> that you give me a way to reproduce it.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="G4" name="G4">G4. I have this idea for a neat feature. Will you add it?</a></h2> -<p>Probably not. Most of the feature suggestions I get are for ways -to set various kinds of administrative policy or add more spam -filtering (the most common one, which I used to get about four -million times a week and got <em>really</em> tired of, is for -tin-like kill files).</p> +<p>If it's reasonable for fetchmail and cannot be solved with reasonable +effort outside of fetchmail, perhaps.</p> <p>You can do spam filtering better with procmail or maildrop on the server side and (if you're the server sysadmin) sendmail.cf @@ -421,10 +428,9 @@ client side, use a <code>preconnect</code> command to call it's a prime-time-vs.-non-prime-time issue, ask yourself whether a wrapper script called from crontab would do the job.</p> -<p>I'm not going to do these; fetchmail's job is transport, not -policy, and I refuse to change it from doing one thing well to -attempting many things badly. One of my objectives is to keep -fetchmail simple so it stays reliable.</p> +<p>fetchmail's first job is transport though, and it should do this +well. If a feature would cause fetchmail to deteriorate in other +respects, the feature will probably not be added.</p> <p>For reasons fetchmail doesn't have other commonly-requested features (such as password encryption, or multiple concurrent polls @@ -433,16 +439,6 @@ href="esrs-design-notes.html">ESR's design notes</a>. Note that this document is partially obsoleted by the <a href="design-notes.html">updated design notes.</a></p> -<p>Fetchmail is a mature project, no longer in constant active -development. It is no longer my top project, and I am going to be -quite reluctant to add features that might either jeopardize its -stability or involve me in large amounts of coding.</p> - -<p>All that said, if you have a feature idea that really is about a -transport problem that can't be handled anywhere but fetchmail, lay -it on me. I'm very accommodating about good ideas.</p> - -<hr/> <h2><a id="G5" name="G5">G5. I want to make fetchmail behave like Outlook Express.</a></h2> @@ -452,13 +448,9 @@ from a maildrop after N days, typically to be used with the <code>keep</code> option as a sort of poor man's newsgroup facility. Microsoft's Outlook Express supports this.</p> -<p>This feature won't be added either. Repeat after me: fetchmail's -job is transport, not policy. If you want this, write a Perl or -Python script, to be run from a cron job, that deletes old messages -off your maildrop. Send it to me and I'll put it in the contrib -directory.</p> +<p>This feature is not yet implemented. It may be at a future date, +spare time of developers permitting.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="G6" name="G6">G6. Is there a mailing list for exchanging tips?</a></h2> @@ -475,7 +467,6 @@ There is also an announcements-only list, fetchmail-announce@lists.berlios.de, which you can sign up for at <a href="http://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/fetchmail-announce">http://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/fetchmail-announce</a>.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="G7" name="G7">G7. So, what's this I hear about a fetchmail paper?</a></h2> @@ -497,7 +488,6 @@ away the source for Netscape Communicator</a>.</p> <p>If you're reading a non-HTML dump of this FAQ, you can find the paper on the Web with a search for that title.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="G8" name="G8">G8. What is the best server to use with fetchmail?</a></h2> @@ -546,7 +536,6 @@ FTP site</a>. Don't use 2.5, which has a rather restrictive license. The 2.5.2 version appears to restore the open-source license of previous versions.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="G9" name="G9">G9. What is the best mail program to use with fetchmail?</a></h2> @@ -570,7 +559,6 @@ by itself. You won't need its built-in POP3 support, though; most of the mutt developers will cheerfully admit that fetchmail's is better :-).</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="G10" name="G10">G10. How can I avoid sending my password en clair?</a></h2> @@ -674,7 +662,6 @@ better, because this is how Craig gets his mail ;-)</p> <p>Finally, you can use <a href="#K5">SSL</a> for complete end-to-end encryption if you have an SSL-enabled mailserver.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="G11" name="G11">G11. Is any special configuration needed to use a dynamic IP address?</a></h2> @@ -752,7 +739,6 @@ mailhost.) See the <a href="http://www.lege.com/sendmail-FAQ.txt">sendmail FAQ</a> for more details.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="G12" name="G12">G12. Is any special configuration needed to use firewalls?</a></h2> @@ -765,7 +751,6 @@ site</a>.</p> <p>The specific recipe for using fetchmail with a firewall is at <a href="#K1">K1</a></p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="G13" name="G13">G13. Is any special configuration needed to <em>send</em> mail?</a></h2> @@ -784,7 +769,6 @@ the outgoing queue. If you have set up something like pppd to automatically dial out when your kernel is called to open a TCP/IP connection, this will ensure that the mail gets out.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="G14" name="G14">G14. Is fetchmail Y2K-compliant?</a></h2> @@ -796,7 +780,6 @@ aren't used for anything but log entry generation. Anyway, if you aren't running on a 64-bit machine by then, you'll deserve to lose.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="G15" name="G15">G15. Is there a way in fetchmail to support disconnected IMAP mode?</a></h2> @@ -805,7 +788,6 @@ protocol gateway between POP3/IMAP servers and SMTP. Disconnected operation requires an elaborate interactive client. It's a very different problem.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="G16" name="G16">G16. How will fetchmail perform under heavy loads?</a></h2> @@ -827,34 +809,30 @@ by buying more TCP/IP capacity (which tends to improve bandwidth but not necessarily latency).</p> <hr/> -<h2><a id="B1" name="B1">B1. Make coughs and dies when building on -FreeBSD.</a></h2> +<h1>Build-time problems</h1> +<h2><a id="B1" name="B1"><strike>B1. Make coughs and dies when building on +FreeBSD.</strike></a></h2> -<p>The vendor-supplied make on FreeBSD systems can only be used -within FreeBSD's "scope", e.g. the ports collection. Type "gmake" -to run GNU make and better things will happen.</p> +<p style="font-style:italic;">As of release 6.3.0, fetchmail's +Makefile[.in] should work flawlessly with BSD's portable make used on +FreeBSD. With older releases, use GNU make (usually installed as +<code>gmake</code>).</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="B2" name="B2">B2. Lex bombs out while building the fetchmail lexer.</a></h2> -<p>In the immortal words of Alan Cox the last time this came up: -"Take the Solaris lex and stick it up the backside of a passing -Sun salesman, then install <a -href="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/non-gnu/flex/">flex</a> and use that. -All will be happier."</p> - -<p>I couldn't have put it better myself, and ain't going to try -now.</p> +<p>fetchmail 6.3.0 and newer ship with the lexer and parser in .c +formats, so you do not need to use lex unless you hacked the .l or .y +files.</p> -<p>(The same problem has been reported under HP-UX v10.20 and -IRIX)</p> +<p>fetchmail's lexer has been developed with GNU flex, and the lex tools +shipped by some UNIX vendors (HP, SGI, Sun) are known to be incapable of +compiling fetchmail's lexer.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="B3" name="B3">B3. I get link failures when I try to build fetchmail.</a></h2> -<p>If you get errors resembling these</p> +<p>If you get errors resembling these:</p> <pre> mxget.o(.text+0x35): undefined referenceto '__res_search' @@ -868,7 +846,7 @@ make: *** [fetchmail] Error 1 Makefile once you have installed the 'bind' package.</p> <p>If you get link errors involving <tt>dcgettext</tt>, like -this:</p> +these:</p> <pre> rcfile_y.o: In function 'yyparse': @@ -881,21 +859,17 @@ rcfile_y.o(.text+0xcc8): undefined reference to 'dcgettext__' rcfile_y.o(.text+0xdf9): more undefined references to 'dcgettext__' follow </pre> -<p>reconfigure with <tt>configure --with-included-gettext</tt>. -This is due to some brain-damage in the GNU internationalization -libraries.</p> +<p>install an up to date version of GNU gettext, reconfigure and rebuild +fetchmail. If that does not help, reconfigure with '--disable-nls' added +to the "./configure" command and rebuild.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="B4" name="B4">B4. I get build failures in the intl directory.</a></h2> <p>Reconfigure with <tt>--disable-nls</tt> and recompile.</p> -<p>GNU gettext is an overengineered, fragile pile of crap. I have -teetered on the brink of removing support for it entirely several -times.</p> - <hr/> +<h1>Fetchmail configuration file grammar questions</h1> <h2><a id="F1" name="F1">F1. Why does my old .fetchmailrc file no longer work?</a></h2> @@ -1023,7 +997,6 @@ options, like '<code>protocol</code>'.</p> <p>Do similarly for any '<code>monitor</code>' or '<code>batchlimit</code>' options.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="F2" name="F2">F2. The .fetchmailrc parser won't accept my all-numeric user name.</a></h2> @@ -1038,7 +1011,6 @@ class.</p> <p>The lexical analyzer in 5.0.6 and beyond is smarter and assumes any token following "username" or "password" is a string.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="F3" name="F3">F3. The .fetchmailrc parser won't accept my host or username beginning with 'no'.</a></h2> @@ -1050,7 +1022,6 @@ rewrite' etc.) and the older style run-on syntax ('nokeep', <p>Upgrade to a 5.0.6 or later fetchmail, or put string quotes around your token.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="F4" name="F4">F4. I'm getting a 'parse error' message I don't understand.</a></h2> @@ -1064,6 +1035,7 @@ Unfortunately, they're necessary in order to allow the 'defaults' feature to work.</p> <hr/> +<h1>Configuration questions</h1> <h2><a id="C1" name="C1">C1. Why do I need a .fetchmailrc when running as root on my own machine?</a></h2> @@ -1121,7 +1093,6 @@ about ways to tinker with the mapping rules, you'll quickly find that all the alternatives to the present default are worse or unacceptably more complicated or both.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="C2" name="C2">C2. How can I arrange for a fetchmail daemon to get killed when I log out?</a></h2> @@ -1142,7 +1113,6 @@ profiles that will accomplish this. Thank James Laferriere <p>Some people start up and shut down fetchmail using the ppp-up and ppp-down scripts of pppd.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="C3" name="C3">C3. How do I know what interface and address to use with --interface?</a></h2> @@ -1221,7 +1191,6 @@ dynamic address pool is 255 addresses ranging from 205.164.136.1 to interface "sl0/205.164.0.0/255.255.0.0" </pre> -<hr/> <h2><a id="C4" name="C4">C4. How can I set up support for sendmail's anti-spam features?</a></h2> @@ -1269,7 +1238,6 @@ fetchmail will flush and delete it.</p> your reject file. You <strong>will</strong> lose mail if you do this!!!</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="C5" name="C5">C5. How can I poll some of my mailboxes more/less often than others?</a></h2> @@ -1288,7 +1256,6 @@ mainsite.example.com is polled, which with a polling interval of every 5 minutes means that secondary.example.com will be polled every 30 minutes.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="C6" name="C6">Fetchmail works OK started up manually, but not from an init script.</a></h2> @@ -1302,7 +1269,6 @@ fetchmail at startup can't find the .fetchmailrc.</p> -f option to point fetchmail at it. That should solve the problem.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="C7" name="C7">C7. How can I forward mail to another host?</a></h2> @@ -1311,6 +1277,7 @@ fetchmail on, use the <code>smtphost</code> or <code>smtpname</code> option. See the manual page for details.</p> <hr/> +<h1>How to make fetchmail play nice with various MTAs</h1> <h2><a id="T1" name="T1">T1. How can I use fetchmail with sendmail?</a></h2> @@ -1397,7 +1364,6 @@ occasionally get mysterious delivery failures with a SIGPIPE as the sendmail instance dies. The problem is messages with a single dot at start of a text line.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="T2" name="T2">T2. How can I use fetchmail with qmail?</a></h2> @@ -1479,7 +1445,6 @@ the alias mechanism described above, you can use the option '<code>qvirtual "mbox-userstr-"</code>' in your fetchmail config file to strip the prefix from the local user name.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="T3" name="T3">T3. How can I use fetchmail with exim?</a></h2> @@ -1528,7 +1493,6 @@ this will result in such messages having an incorrect domain name attached to their return address (your SMTP listener's hostname rather than that of the remote mail server).</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="T4" name="T4">T4. How can I use fetchmail with smail?</a></h2> @@ -1555,7 +1519,6 @@ listener <em>must</em> allow this mismatch, so smail's new behavior to accept the "localhost" that fetchmail normally appends to recipient addresses.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="T5" name="T5">T5. How can I use fetchmail with SCO's MMDF?</a></h2> @@ -1566,7 +1529,6 @@ href="http://www.aplawrence.com/Unixart/uucptofetch.html">MMDF recipe</a> that describes replacing a UUCP link with fetchmail feeding MMDF.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="T6" name="T6">T6. How can I use fetchmail with Lotus Notes?</a></h2> @@ -1574,7 +1536,6 @@ Notes?</a></h2> convert \n to \r\n, but its rules are not the intuitive and correct-for-RFC822 ones. Use 'forcecr'.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="T7" name="T7">T7. How can I use fetchmail with Courier IMAP?</a></h2> @@ -1582,7 +1543,6 @@ IMAP?</a></h2> <code>someone@localhost</code>. Work around this with an <code>smtphost</code> or <code>smtpaddress</code>.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a name="T8">T8. How can I use fetchmail with vbmailshield?</a></h2> <p>vbmailshield's SMTP interpreter is broken. It doesn't understand RSET.</p> @@ -1590,6 +1550,7 @@ IMAP?</a></h2> <p>As a workaround, you can set batchlimit to 1 so RSET is never used.</p> <hr/> +<h1>How to make fetchmail work with various servers</h1> <h2><a id="S1" name="S1">S1. How can I use fetchmail with qpopper?</a></h2> @@ -1623,7 +1584,6 @@ interaction with Eudora qpopper versions 2.3 and later. See <a href="#X5">X5</a> for details. The solution is to upgrade your fetchmail.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="S2" name="S2">S2. How can I use fetchmail with Microsoft Exchange?</a></h2> @@ -1758,7 +1718,6 @@ ASROC will do), pissing off a lot people who live downwind from Redmond, and your choice of any Linux, NetBSD, FreeBSD, or Solaris CD-ROM.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="S3" name="S3">S3. How can I use fetchmail with HP OpenMail?</a></h2> @@ -1778,7 +1737,6 @@ OpenMail's project manager claims these bugs have been fixed in command fails, returning only one line regrardless of its argument, on something identifying itself as "OpenMail POP3 interface".</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="S4" name="S4">S4. How can I use fetchmail with Novell GroupWise?</a></h2> <p>The Novell GroupWise IMAP server would be better named @@ -1791,7 +1749,6 @@ voting with your dollars for a server that isn't brain-dead. If you stick with code as shoddy as GroupWise seems to be, you will probably pay for it with other problems.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="S5" name="S5">S5. How can I use fetchmail with InterChange?</a></h2> @@ -1804,7 +1761,6 @@ them on TOP or RETR.</p> me that their new 3.61.08 release of InterChange fixes this problem. I don't have any reports one way or the other yet.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="S6" name="S6">S6. How can I use fetchmail with MailMax?</a></h2> <p>You can't. At least not if you want to be able to see @@ -1817,7 +1773,6 @@ developers have acknowledged this bug as of 4 May 2000, but there is no fix yet. If you must use this server, force RETR with the <tt>fetchall</tt> option.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="S7" name="S7">S7. How can I use fetchmail with FTGate?</a></h2> <p>The FTGate V2 server (and possibly older versions as well) has a @@ -1826,6 +1781,7 @@ weird bug. It answers OK twice to a TOP request! Use the this bug.</p> <hr/> +<h1>How to fetchmail work with specific ISPs</h1> <h2><a id="I1" name="I1">I1. How can I use fetchmail with CompuServe RPA?</a></h2> <p>First, make sure your fetchmail has the RPA support compiled in. @@ -1864,7 +1820,6 @@ poll non-rpa.csi.com via "pop.site1.csi.com" with proto POP3 and options no dns is LOCAL_USER here options fetchall stripcr </pre> -<hr/> <h2><a id="I2" name="I2">I2. How can I use fetchmail with Demon Internet's SDPS?</a></h2> @@ -1937,7 +1892,6 @@ address.</p> greeting line; if you're accessing Demon Internet through a proxy it may fail. To force SDPS mode, pick "sdps" as your protocol.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="I3" name="I3">I3. How can I use fetchmail with usa.net's servers?</a></h2> @@ -1962,7 +1916,6 @@ to avoid having fetched mail rejected.</p> servers. They seem to be chronically flaky. We recommend finding another provider.)</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="I4" name="I4">I4. How can I use fetchmail with geocities POP3 servers?</a></h2> @@ -1972,7 +1925,7 @@ the send to fetchmail. This can solve problems if your MUA interprets Received continuations as body lines and doesn't parse any of the following headers.</p> -<p>Workaround is to use "mda" keyword or "-mda" switch:</p> +<p>Workaround is to use "mda" keyword or "--mda" switch:</p> <pre> mda "sed -e '1s/^\t/Received: /' | formail | /usr/bin/procmail -d <user>" @@ -1987,7 +1940,6 @@ already been read.</p> <p>Fix: Get an email provider that doesn't suck. The pop-up ads on Geocities are lame, you should boycott them anyway.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="I5" name="I5">I5. How can I use fetchmail with Hotmail or Lycos Webmail?</a></h2> <p>You can't directly. But you can use fetchmail with hotmail or lycos @@ -2007,7 +1959,6 @@ poll localhost protocol pop3 tracepolls <p>As a second option you may consider using <a href="http://linux.cudeso.be/linuxdoc/gotmail.php">gotmail</a>.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="I6" name="I6">I6. How can I use fetchmail with MSN?</a></h2> <p>You can't. MSN uses something that looks like POP3, except the @@ -2022,7 +1973,6 @@ authentication. It's possible this may enable fetchmail to talk to MSN; if so, somebody should report it so this FAQ can be corrected.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="I7" name="I7">I7. How can I use fetchmail with SpryNet?</a></h2> <p>The SpryNet POP3 servers mark a message queried with TOP as @@ -2031,7 +1981,6 @@ may end up invisibly stuck on your mail spool. Use the <code>fetchall</code> flag to ensure that it's recovered on the next cycle.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="I8" name="I8">I8. How can I use fetchmail with comcast.net?</a></h2> <p>Stock fetchmail will work with a comcast.net server...<em>but</em> @@ -2043,6 +1992,8 @@ fetchmail bug. (Reported July 2003.)</p> <p>Workaround: use the <tt>fetchall</tt> option.</p> <hr/> +<h1>How to set up well-known security and authentication +methods</h1> <h2><a id="K1" name="K1">K1. How can I use fetchmail with SOCKS?</a></h2> <p>Giuseppe Guerini added a --with-socks option that supports @@ -2054,7 +2005,6 @@ directory containing the Rconnect library.</p> <p>Alan Schmitt has added a similar --with-socks5 option that may work better if you have a recent version of the SOCKS library.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="K2" name="K2">K2. How can I use fetchmail with IPv6 and IPsec?</a></h2> @@ -2075,7 +2025,6 @@ href="http://www.bieringer.de/linux/IPv6/IPv6-HOWTO/IPv6-HOWTO.html"> http://www.bieringer.de/linux/IPv6/IPv6-HOWTO/IPv6-HOWTO.html</a></li> </ul> -<hr/> <h2><a id="K3" name="K3">K3. How can I get fetchmail to work with ssh?</a></h2> @@ -2100,7 +2049,6 @@ preauthenticated in this mode, so you'll actually have to ship your password. It will be under ssh encryption, though, so that shouldn't be a problem.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="K4" name="K4">K4. What do I have to do to use the IMAP-GSS protocol?</a></h2> @@ -2140,7 +2088,6 @@ Kerberos principal.</p> <p>Now you don't have to worry about your password appearing in cleartext in your .fetchmailrc, or across the network.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="K5" name="K5">K5. How can I use fetchmail with SSL?</a></h2> @@ -2237,7 +2184,8 @@ server). Make a note of the fingerprint shown. Now embed this in your <pre> poll pop3.example.com proto pop3 uidl no dns - user foobar@example.com password xyzzy is foobar ssl sslfingerprint "67:3E:02:94:D3:5B:C3:16:86:71:37:01:B1:3B:BC:E2" + user foobar@example.com password xyzzy is foobar + ssl sslfingerprint "67:3E:02:94:D3:5B:C3:16:86:71:37:01:B1:3B:BC:E2" </pre> <p>When you next connect, the public key presented by the server will be @@ -2245,7 +2193,6 @@ verified against the fingerprint given. If it's different, it may mean that a man-in-the-middle attack is in progress - or it might just mean that the server changed its key. It's up to you to determine which has happened.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="K6" name="K6">K6. How can I tell fetchmail not to use TLS if the server advertises it?</a></h2> @@ -2265,6 +2212,7 @@ however that this causes the connection to be unencrypted unless an encrypting "plugin" is used or SSL is requested explicitly.</p> <hr/> +<h1>Runtime fatal errors</h1> <h2><a id="R1" name="R1">R1. Fetchmail isn't working, and -v shows 'SMTP connect failed' messages.</a></h2> @@ -2343,7 +2291,6 @@ Linux distributions the libc bind library version works better.</p> library is linked only if it is actually needed. So under Linux it won't be, and this particular cause should go away.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="R2" name="R2">R2. When I try to configure an MDA, fetchmail doesn't work.</a></h2> @@ -2360,7 +2307,6 @@ configure an MDA, your MDA is mangling the message. If it doesn't match what you sent, then fetchmail or something on the server is broken.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="R3" name="R3">R3. Fetchmail dumps core when given an invalid rc file.</a></h2> @@ -2377,7 +2323,6 @@ Software Foundation. An FSF <a href="http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/order/ftp.html">mirror site</a> will help you get it faster.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="R4" name="R4">R4. Fetchmail dumps core in -V mode, but operates normally otherwise.</a></h2> @@ -2396,7 +2341,6 @@ calls producing the problem are being made by the C library itself, not the fetchmail code (they're all from within fclose, and not an fclose called directly by fetchmail, either).</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="R5" name="R5">R5. Running fetchmail in daemon mode doesn't work.</a><br/> </h2> @@ -2426,7 +2370,6 @@ child of PID 1). This is important when you start fetchmail interactively and than quit interactive shell. The line above makes sure fetchmail lives after that!</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="R6" name="R6">R6. Fetchmail randomly dies with socket errors.</a></h2> @@ -2447,7 +2390,6 @@ different poll cycles. To work around this, change the poll name either to the real name of one of the servers in the ring or to a corresponding IP address.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="R7" name="R7">R7. Fetchmail running as root stopped working after an OS upgrade</a></h2> @@ -2457,7 +2399,6 @@ your .fetchmailrc or use a -f option to explicitly point at the file. (Oddly, a similar problem has been reported from Debian systems.)</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="R8" name="R8">R8. Fetchmail is timing out after fetching certain messages but before deleting them</a></h2> @@ -2485,7 +2426,6 @@ least [now] I am now getting good performance and no queue blocking.</p> </blockquote> -<hr/> <h2><a id="R9" name="R9">R9. Fetchmail is timing out during message fetches</a></h2> @@ -2494,7 +2434,6 @@ command will cause the server to start sending large amounts of data, which means large packets. If your networking layer has a packet-fragmentation problem, that's where you'll see it.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="R10" name="R10">R10. Fetchmail is dying with SIGPIPE.</a></h2> @@ -2510,14 +2449,12 @@ occasionally get mysterious delivery failures with a SIGPIPE as the sendmail instance dies. The problem is messages with a single dot at start of a text line.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="R11" name="R11">R11. My server is hanging or emitting errors on CAPA.</a></h2> <p>Your POP3 server is broken. You can work around this with the declaration <tt>auth password</tt> in your .fetchmailrc.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="R12" name="R12">R12. Fetchmail isn't working and reports getaddrinfo errors.</a></h2> <ol><li>Make sure you haven't mistyped the host name or address, and that @@ -2526,14 +2463,18 @@ declaration <tt>auth password</tt> in your .fetchmailrc.</p> <li>Make sure your <code>/etc/services</code> file (or other services database) contains the necessary service entries. If you cannot fix the services database, use the --service option and give the - numeric port address. Common port addresses are:<table> + numeric port address. Common port addresses are:<table + summary="Common port addresses for IMAP, POP3 and their SSL + complements."> <tr><th>service</th><th>port</th></tr> <tr><td>IMAP</td><td>143</td></tr> <tr><td>IMAP+SSL</td><td>993</td></tr> <tr><td>POP3</td><td>110</td></tr> <tr><td>POP3+SSL</td><td>995</td></tr> </table></li></ol> + <hr/> +<h1>Hangs and lockups</h1> <h2><a id="H1" name="H1">H1. Fetchmail hangs when used with pppd.</a></h2> @@ -2541,7 +2482,6 @@ pppd.</a></h2> report that fetchmail doesn't play well with it, but works with pppd if 'demand' is turned off. We have no idea why this is.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="H2" name="H2">H2. Fetchmail hangs during the MAIL FROM exchange.</a></h2> @@ -2585,7 +2525,6 @@ configuration of sendmail. You must enable the 'nodns' and <p>For more details consult the file /usr/share/sendmail-cf/README.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="H3" name="H3">H3. Fetchmail hangs while fetching mail.</a></h2> @@ -2608,6 +2547,7 @@ TCP wrappers.</p> this problem.</p> <hr/> +<h1>Disappearing mail</h1> <h2><a id="D1" name="D1">D1. I think I've set up fetchmail correctly, but I'm not getting any mail.</a></h2> @@ -2630,7 +2570,6 @@ following line</p> <p>make sure that 'localuser' does exist and can receive mail.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="D2" name="D2">D2. All my mail seems to disappear after a dropped connection.</a></h2> @@ -2661,7 +2600,6 @@ amount of time to do deletions and clean up its queue. (Fetchmail waits a bit before retrying in order to avoid a 'lock busy' error.)</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="D3" name="D3">D3. Mail that was being fetched when I interrupted my fetchmail seems to have been vanished.</a></h2> @@ -2686,6 +2624,7 @@ fetch options.</p> server.</p> <hr/> +<h1>Multidrop-mode problems</h1> <h2><a id="M1" name="M1">M1. I've declared local names, but all my multidrop mail is going to root anyway.</a></h2> @@ -2714,7 +2653,6 @@ net.</p> <p>Occasionally these errors indicate the sort of header-parsing problem described in <a href="#M7">M7</a>.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="M2" name="M2">M2. I can't seem to get fetchmail to route to a local domain properly.</a></h2> @@ -2764,7 +2702,6 @@ bamboozled by this.</p> multidrop delivery if your ISP (or your mail redirection provider) is using qmail.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="M3" name="M3">M3. I tried to run a mailing list using multidrop, and I have a mail loop!</a></h2> @@ -2776,7 +2713,6 @@ chop the host part off any local addresses in the list.</p> <p>If you use sendmail, you can check the list expansion with <code>sendmail -bv</code>.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="M4" name="M4">M4. My multidrop fetchmail seems to be having DNS problems.</a></h2> @@ -2790,7 +2726,6 @@ works better.</p> library is linked only if it is actually needed. So under Linux it won't be, and this problem should go away.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="M5" name="M5">M5. I'm seeing long DNS delays before each message is processed.</a></h2> @@ -2807,7 +2742,6 @@ other hostname parts from being looked up at all.</p> call DNS on the From-address hostname as a way of checking that the address is valid.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="M6" name="M6">M6. How do I get multidrop mode to work with majordomo?</a></h2> @@ -2859,7 +2793,6 @@ default ISP user+domain and service about 30 mail accounts + majordomo on my inside pop3 server with fetchmail and sendmail 8.83</blockquote> -<hr/> <h2><a id="M7" name="M7">M7. Multidrop mode isn't parsing envelope addresses from my Received headers as it should.</a></h2> @@ -2897,7 +2830,6 @@ address. This check might fail if your DNS were misconfigured, or if you were using 'no dns' and had failed to declare iserv.ttns.net as an alias of your server.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="M8" name="M8">M8. Users are getting multiple copies of messages.</a></h2> @@ -2922,6 +2854,7 @@ operation that might significantly slow down the retrieval of large mail batches.</p> <hr/> +<h1>Mangled mail</h1> <h2><a id="X1" name="X1">X1. Spurious blank lines are appearing in the headers of fetched mail.</a></h2> @@ -2935,10 +2868,9 @@ delivery) is failing to recognize it as a header.</p> installing a current version of <em>deliver</em>. If this doesn't work, try to figure out which other program in your mail path is inserting the blank line and replace that. If you can't do either -of these things, pick a different MDA (such as procmail) and +of these things, pick a different MDA (such as maildrop) and declare it with the '<code>mda</code>' option.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="X2" name="X2">X2. My mail client can't see a Subject line.</a></h2> @@ -2952,7 +2884,6 @@ process X- headers correctly. If this is your problem, all I can suggest is replacing IDA sendmail, because it's broken and not RFC822 conformant.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="X3" name="X3">X3. Messages containing "From" at start of line are being split.</a></h2> @@ -2992,7 +2923,6 @@ option in the flags part (the F= string). This will make sendmail turn each dangerous start-of-line From into a >From, preventing programs further downstream from acting up.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="X4" name="X4">X4.</a> <a id="generic_mangling" name="generic_mangling">My mail is being mangled in a new and different way</a></h2> @@ -3081,7 +3011,6 @@ Please include the session transcript of your manual fetchmail simulation along with the other things described in the FAQ entry on <a href="#G3">reporting bugs</a>.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="X5" name="X5">X5. Using POP3, retrievals seems to be fetching too much!</a></h2> @@ -3101,7 +3030,6 @@ argument. Decrementing the TOP argument in 4.4.7 fixed this.</p> <p>Workaround: set the <code>fetchall</code> option. Under POP3 this has the side effect of forcing RETR use.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="X6" name="X6">X6. My mail attachments are being dropped or mangled.</a></h2> @@ -3237,7 +3165,6 @@ world doesn't understand its attachments, so it really shouldn't be used at all), and make sure dtmail is set to use MIME rather than mailtool's format.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="X7" name="X7">X7. Some mail attachments are hanging fetchmail.</a></h2> @@ -3261,7 +3188,6 @@ malfunctioning path-MTU discovery on the mailserver. Or, if there's a modem in the link, it may be because the attachment contains the Hayes mode escape "+++".</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="X8" name="X8">X8. A spurious ) is being appended to my messages.</a></h2> @@ -3312,6 +3238,7 @@ on, you'll get a message about actual != expected.</p> href="#S2">S2</a> looks more tempting all the time.</p> <hr/> +<h1>Other problems</h1> <h2><a id="O1" name="O1">O1. The --logfile option doesn't work if the logfile doesn't exist.</a></h2> @@ -3322,7 +3249,6 @@ get around it, just touch(1) the logfile before you run fetchmail (this will have no effect on the contents of the logfile if it already exists).</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="O2" name="O2">O2. Every time I get a POP or IMAP message the header is dumped to all my terminal sessions.</a></h2> @@ -3360,14 +3286,12 @@ biff n to solve the problem system-wide. -<hr/> <h2><a id="O3" name="O3">O3. Does fetchmail reread its rc file every poll cycle?</a></h2> <p>No, but versions 5.2.2 and later will notice when you modify your rc file and restart, reading it.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="O4" name="O4">O4. Why do deleted messages show up again when I take a line hit while downloading?</a></h2> @@ -3394,7 +3318,6 @@ between the delete and the expunge. If you've set a longer expunge interval, the window gets wider. This problem should correct itself the next time you complete a successful query.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="O5" name="O5">O5. Why is fetched mail being logged with my name, not the real From address?</a></h2> @@ -3416,7 +3339,6 @@ on any MAIL FROM address fetchmail hands them with an @ in it!</p> back to the calling-user ID. So if your SMTP listener isn't picky, the log will look right.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="O6" name="O6">O6. I'm seeing long sendmail delays or hangs near the start of each poll cycle.</a></h2> @@ -3437,7 +3359,6 @@ reconfiguring with <code>FEATURE(nodns)</code>.</p> help, and is a good idea for speeding up other services as well. Switching to a faster MTA like qmail or exim might help.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="O7" name="O7">O7. Why doesn't fetchmail deliver mail in date-sorted order?</a></h2> @@ -3457,7 +3378,6 @@ it uses.</p> <p>Re-ordering messages is a user-agent function, anyway.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="O8" name="O8">O8. I'm using pppd. Why isn't my monitor option working?</a></h2> @@ -3470,7 +3390,6 @@ fetchmail relies upon, triggering fetchmail into polling after its own delay interval and thus preventing the pppd link from ever reaching its inactivity timeout.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="O9" name="O9">O9. Why does fetchmail keep retrieving the same messages over and over?</a></h2> @@ -3527,14 +3446,12 @@ connection is terminated correctly.</em></p> to behave on a line drop, according to the RFCs. I recommend switching to IMAP and using a short expunge interval.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a id="O10" name="O10">O10. Why is the received date on all my messages the same?</a></h2> <p>This is a design choice in your MTA, not fetchmail. It's taking the received date from the last Received header.</p> -<hr /> <h2><a name="O11">O11. I keep getting messages that say "Repoll immediately" in my logs.</a></h2> @@ -3546,7 +3463,6 @@ get the message only once per run.</p> <p>If you set an authentication method explicitly (say, with <code>auth password</code>), you will never get the message.</p> -<hr /> <h2><a name="O12">O12. Fetchmail no longer expunges mail on a 451 SMTP response.</a></h2> <p>This is a feature, not a bug.</p> @@ -3570,13 +3486,11 @@ dns errors.</p> <p>All these issues are not related to fetchmail directly.</p> -<hr /> <h2><a name="O13">O13. I want timestamp information in my fetchmail logs.</a></h2> <p>Write a <code>preconnect</code> command in your configuration file that does something like "date >> $HOME/Procmail/fetchmail.log".</p> -<hr/> <h2><a name="O14">O14. Fetchmail no longer deletes oversized mails with --flush.</a></h2> @@ -3594,7 +3508,6 @@ oversized mails or both when a user specifies both <code>--limit</code> and <code>--flush</code>. Hence, a separate <code>--limitflush</code> has been added to resolve the ambiguity.</p> -<hr/> <h2><a name="O15">O15. Fetchmail always retains the first message in the mailbox.</a></h2> |